ULAN BATOR, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Mongolia's purchase of gold is expected to decrease in 2019, the central bank's spokesperson said Saturday.

The 2014 amendments to the Minerals Law have played an important role in hiking gold sales to the Treasury Fund over the past five years, but the effective period of the law expired on Jan. 1, Ariun Dagva told Xinhua.

"Thus, gold purchase of the central bank is expected to decline significantly in 2019. The bank has not yet set a goal on the amount of gold to buy this year," Ariun said.

The bank purchased only 12.7 tons of gold in 2014. Thanks to the low royalty taxes on gold with the 2014 amendments, the central bank's annual gold purchase almost doubled in 2018, she said.

The Bank of Mongolia bought a total of 22 tons of gold from legal entities and individuals in 2018, up 9.5 percent from the previous year.